4,500 British and Indian troops and twelve thousand camp-followers, including some three dozen British wives, children and nannies, found themselves beleaguered in what Kaye described as little better than ‘sheep-folds on the plain’.

Chelsea were coping comfortably as Liverpool left Luis Suarez too isolated. Steven Gerrard was also being forced to drop too deep to offer support to the beleaguered Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson rather than add attacking potency alongside the Uruguayan.